FORMER
OWNER OF ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY PLEADS GUILTY TO ABUSE OF
A DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED MAN

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Thomas
C. Williams, a former owner of an unlicenced assisted living facility
called Keeper of the Bretheren Homes, located in Baltimore County,
pleaded guilty to one count of abuse of a vulnerable adult for
repeatedly punching a developmentally disabled man who was in his
care in the face. Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Christian
M. Kahl imposed a suspended sentence and placed Williams on 18
months probation.

Williams, 37, of the 1100 block of Bonaparte Avenue in Baltimore,
owned Keeper of the Bretheren Homes located at 808 Painted Post
Court in Baltimore County. According to the Statement of Facts,
on December 17, 2003, Williams called the police claiming that
a resident of his assisted living facility had assaulted him. The
28 year old resident had been residing at the Painted Post Court
address since November 2003 and is moderately mentally retarded,
suffers from schizophrenia, depression and is bi-polar.

When the police officer arrived at 808 Painted Post Court, Williams
began to explain to the police officer what had occurred. The resident
was sitting in the room on a couch and told Williams that he was
a liar. Williams then walked over to the resident, and in front
of the police officer, began to repeatedly punch the resident in
the face. The officer tried to break up the fight, and was only
able to separate the two by using his chemical spray. The resident
was not injured in the melee.

Attorney General
Curran’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit had
previously prosecuted Williams in March of this year for leaving
two developmentally disabled men who were in his care, alone and
unsupervised for almost four hours during a record-setting blizzard
in February of 2003. Williams served 8 months in the Baltimore
County Detention Center for neglecting those vulnerable adults.

The case was
prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit, which has authority to prosecute abuse or neglect
of vulnerable adults in Medicaid-funded facilities and assisted
living units.